Owner: Straight Pass Through Blog URL:http://www.straightpassthrough.biz Join Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:02:01 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Merchant Accounts Made Simple. Taking the mystery out of hard to read merchant account statements, misleading teaser rates and terms such as "EIRF", "interchange" and "non-qualified". Plus some thoughts on how business should Site statistics:Click here
Fraud Prevention Report 2008-03-21 13:16:26 Cybersource which is the company that owns authorize.net has just come out with a report about web based transaction fraud. This is the eighth year they have come out with this report that includes benchmark data by company size and best practices you can use to prevent or reduce fraud.
Go here and fill out the form and they will send you and e-mail link to a .pdf version of [...]
Options for QuickBooks Users 2008-03-20 09:57:05 This week I have had the pleasure of analyzing two merchant account statements from businesses that were running their transactions through the extremely popular business accounting software QuickBooks. Both businesses were with the same merchant account provider and both were paying significantly more in fees than they needed to.
Statement Confusion
What I found interesting about these two statements was how difficult they were to comprehend. On the cover [...]
Read more:Options
Why are You in Business? 2008-03-24 13:24:09 Business, as a practice, is neutral. It can be used for profit, power, financial survival, personal expression and even making the world a better place. The truth is, the typical business is used for all of the above and more. What I am wondering out loud is why I am in business? What do I want to accomplish? How can I use [...]
Read more:Business
Great Lessons for Small to Mid-Sized Business Owners 2008-03-26 07:26:36 American Express has begun advertising a new website they call “Open Forum - Networking, Ideas and Expertise for BusinessOwners
.” Before I visited the site I thought it would be cheesy - I was wrong. They recently shot a bunch of videos at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with leading business thinkers and practitioners. Here is a list of who was interviewed:
Seth Godin [...]
Read more:Great
, Lessons
, Small
April 2008 Interchange Changes 2008-03-25 11:48:24 I have been seeing competing merchant account providers raising their rates because Visa and MasterCard are making some adjustments to interchange rates. So what is really going on? Are the interchange rates really increasing? Here is what I know:
Visa
Effective April
2008 Visa is raising their “Signature Preferred - card not present” rates by .10%.
MasterCard
Effective April 2008 MasterCard is adding new Merit 1 interchange categories for [...]
An SPT Processing Statement is a Sales Tool? What? 2008-03-24 17:10:05 by John Robinson
We know you’re successful business people. (I mean, you’re reading StraightPassThrough.biz, right?) And this means you probably have a pretty good idea who your customers are.
But what if you could use your processing statement to really market to specific customer groups? What if your statement was a powerful sales analysis tool?
Wow.
The statement, when you are receiving some form of SPT, is probably the most [...]
Read more:Processing
, Sales
Interchange Compliance - Guidelines (Part One) 2008-03-27 20:03:29 Source: WikipediaRules. It seems like we have more rules in our lives every day doesn’t it? I am writing this post to make you aware of some more rules. These rules are for merchant accounts and if you don’t follow them you will you will be fined! Well maybe not fined but you will end up paying more for your merchant account.
It would be real nice [...] Read more:Compliance
, Guidelines
Interview: Marketing and PR Expert Don Simkovich 2008-04-03 12:19:42 When I first started writing this blog last year I connected with a fellow new business blogger, Don Simkovich. We lost contact with each other until I saw his blog recently on Technorati. So I contacted him to see if he would allow me to interview him in his areas of expertise, marketing and Public Relations. He was nice enough to say yes and below you will find the interview [...] Read more:Marketing
, Expert
Merchant Account Industry Regulaton Update 2008-04-05 18:30:33 House Democrat John Conyers of Michigan and Republican Chris Cannon of Utah have introduced the Credit Card Fair Fee Act that would regulate fees the credit-card industry charges to merchants. Here is a great article from the Wall Street Journal about this act and some other thoughts about the credit card processing industry:
Wall Street Journal - Credit Card Wars
Related Posts
April 2008 Interchange Changes
What is a Merchant Account
Downgrade?
Debit or Credit?
Eight [...] Read more:Update
The End of Business as Usual 2008-04-11 17:31:58 In recent weeks I have come to learn about a business person who works in one of my key industries - wine. His name is Gary Vanerchuck and he owns a retail wine business in New York and is the world famous host of winelibrarytv.com.
I was recently watching an interview of his where he spoke about his transformation from old school business thought to business, or [...] Read more:Business
Help With Chargebacks 2008-04-10 22:25:30 I came across a great article about how to deal with dishonest customer chargebacks on a e-commerce blog named Get Elastic; here is the link to the blog post:
Dodging Dishonest Customer Chargebacks
Related Posts
Merchant Account Industry Regulaton Update
Interchange Compliance - Guidelines (Part One)
April 2008 Interchange Changes
An SPT Processing Statement is a Sales Tool? What?
How Merchant Accounts Work
Fraud Prevention Report
Options for QuickBooks Users
Let’s Get Rid of Your EIRF! 2008-04-23 08:30:45 If you are seeing a Visa transaction category named "EIRF" on your merchant account statement you are probably paying much more in discount fees than you need to. If you do not know what EIRF is, read this post and then come back: What is EIRF?
So how do we get rid of EIRF? [...]
Your Payment Engine ISN’T Your Processor! 2008-04-22 23:23:26 By John Robinson
It seems like everyone’s using the internet these days to run transactions. Even brick-n-mortar businesses are using web-based software with USB magnetic strip readers, making their laptops into swipe terminals.
As fantastic as that is, it can confuse even the most sophisticated internet geek when something goes awry. Who should you call?
I [...] Read more:Payment
, Engine
Consider a Spare Terminal 2008-04-25 16:28:25 By John Robinson
Thank one of my merchants for this suggestion.
If you’re a brick-n-mortar business, and you’re using terminals to run your credit card transactions, you may have experienced the discomfort of a terminal dying. You may have needed to funnel large numbers of customers to other cash lanes, causing gridlock at your registers and annoying [...] Read more:Spare
What is up with the CVV2 Code? 2008-04-26 17:50:56 Many merchants believe that adding a cardholder’s three or four digit CVV2 code for a “card not present” (CNP) transaction will help qualify the transaction for a lower discount rate. However that is not the case; the CVV2 code is only valuable to protect against credit card fraud and has nothing to do with [...]
Testimonial #1 2008-05-16 10:08:15 I just asked for my first testimonial from a client of mine. After reading what she wrote I think I need to start asking for more of these! Allow me to show off a little:
“I have been in the business world for over 25 years. In that time I have had the pleasure (and pain) [...]
Testimonial #2 2008-05-21 18:07:43 I received a very nice, unsolicited testimonial today. This is from my main point of contact at one of my favorite clients, Horizon Moving Systems in Tuscon, AZ. This is what Susanna Main e-mailed me after we fixed an issue with their virtual point of sale:
“Robb, this is why EVERYONE wants to work [...]
Discover Card Transactions and CVV Codes 2008-05-22 13:16:22 I know a few posts ago I wrote there was no effect on your discount rate whether you enter the CVV2 code or not. That is true for Visa and MasterCard but does not appear to be the case with keyed in Discover
Card transactions. I just reviewed a Discover statement for a mail order [...] Read more:Codes
Happy Day Merchants! Interchange Fees before Congress! (Again) 2008-05-28 09:05:17 By John Robinson
I just came across something I’m sure you’ll all love: the potential for merchants as a group to negotiate interchange fees with the Visa and MC member banks! There’s a bill being looked at by the Judiciary Committee Antitrust Task Force called “U.S. House of Representatives bill 5546”, [...] Read more:Happy
, Congress
, Again
, Happy Day
Straight Pass Through as a Lifestyle? 2008-07-12 13:20:18 When I first thought up the name of this blog as "Straight
Pass Through" (SPT) my focus was merchant accounts alone. It was all about exposing the truth behind interchange and how it affects a business’s bottom line.
However, in the year this blog as been up my understanding of that phrase has been expanding. SPT [...]
Where do Processing Fees Come From? Pt. 1 2008-07-11 19:14:48 By John Robinson , of Cocard Synergy
For the really short answer, check out Who Gets Your Merchant Account Fees?
Here’s the plain ‘ol short answer:
Originally these fees were created to cover the cost of processing for your customer’s bank (the “issuing bank ”), and to make small profit for the bank giving you your money (the [...] Read more:Processing
Robb Makes it into US News and World Report! 2008-07-07 17:17:49 I received a call from a reporter at US News an World
Report two weeks ago. His name was Matt Bandyk, a business writer for the magazine. He had found me through my other blog straightpassthroug.biz and he had some questions about how businesses could lower their merchant account processing fees. We talked [...] Read more:World Report
Where do all those fees go? 2008-07-02 18:24:05 Adam J. Levtin , a professor Georgetown Law School, recently wote a real easy to understand article about who all the fees assocated with a merchant account go to at CreditSlips . Here is an excerpt:
"Here’s the deal. You purchase $100.00 of goods at a merchant on a credit card. The merchant receives $100 minus [...]
Who Get’s Your Merchant Account Fees? 2008-06-25 15:44:44 The Biggest Chunk: The Issuing Bank (the bank that “issued” your customer’s their credit card)
This part of your fees are called “Interchange.” Depending on the type of business, size of transaction and type used these fees range between 1.03% and 2.70% plus transaction fees of $0 to $0.15.
Next: Visa or MasterCard (the associations)
These are called [...] Read more:Account
Who is the “Issuing Bank?” 2008-05-12 12:24:57 The Issuing Bank is the financial institution that extends credit to a card holder through credit card accounts. The financial institution issues a credit card and bills the card holder for purchases against the bankcard account.
Here is wikipedia’s defenition for Issuing Bank .
Related Posts
Who and What is the “Aquiring Bank?”
Why Comply with PCI? 2008-07-24 17:49:27 By John Robinson, of Cocard Synergy
It’s a Pain in the You-Know-What, but Necessary.
PCI seems daunting. I’m sure you’ve heard about it. To start, it’s actually PCI DSS that we’re concerned with, and that stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. “Data Security Standard” is the key here.
Basically, the idea is to prevent identity theft
How Do Merchant Accounts Work? 2008-07-16 12:27:06 Credit card processing seems simple enough. However, there are lots of moving parts behind the scenes. Here is a simplified, step by step list that reveals the whole process:
Authorization
1. Your customer presents their credit card (or the card number, expiration date and security code) to you or your employee.
2. You swipe the card or key [...] Read more:Accounts
Where do Processing Fees Come From? Pt. 2 2008-07-16 12:05:03 By John Robinson, of Cocard Synergy
For the remainder of this discussion, I’ll discuss interchange fees and then a little about the fees to the merchant account provider. The assessment fees paid to the associations, both being small and not negotiable, can wait for another day.
Interchange fees usually make up roughly 80% of the fees you [...] Read more:Processing
The Three Price Points of a Merchant Account 2008-06-08 15:42:00 How challenging can managing a merchant account be? I review 5 – 10 merchant account statements each week and almost everyone one starts out looking like it is written in a foreign language! Some statements have fees from three separate months! Other statements are extremely vague and seem to be intentionally hiding information. So the [...] Read more:Three
, Points
, Account
QuickBooks and Merchant Accounts 2008-08-09 11:51:01 About This Quickbooks Post
If you want to use QuickBooks® accounting or point of sale software you may think you have only one option for your merchant account provider. If Intuit had it’s way that would be true but thanks to some determined companies that is not the case. That means now you can use Quickbooks [...] Read more:Accounts
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